All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘Boston Dynamics’

I’m sure you’re familiar with the famous Crane kick in The Karate Kid. Boston Dynamics, which Google bought nearly a year ago, has a new video of one of its Atlas robots seemingly trying to mimick the famous move. Just in case you think that’s a stretch, the video is actually called “Atlas KarateKid”. It’s unclear if sweeping the leg …

Back in the Winter, Google acquired Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm known for a number of nightmare-inducing robot models, and for working with DARPA. The New York Times reported at the time that Google said it would honor existing military contracts, but that it didn’t plan to move toward becoming a military contractor. Now, reports have come out that the …

Last year, Google bought Boston Dynamics, the robot makers who created such nightmare-inducing machines as this: …and this: …and this: Now, the company is working with researchers from MIT to add some more flexibility into the mix (via 9to5 Google): I’ll let your imagination run wild on its own with that. So, just to be clear, they have robots that …

What many of us have anticipated and joked about (uneasily) for years is now coming to fruition. Google is quickly assembling an army of robots. The company has acquired eight robotics companies (that we know of), and is using them for something that it is saying very little about. What would you like to see Google do with robots? Let …

Late on Friday, news came out that Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, makers of some of the scariest-looking robots you’ve been watching on YouTube over the past few years. You know the ones: WildCat, LS3, Atlas, Petman, Cheetah, BigDog, SandFlea, RHex, RISE and LittleDog. They jump high, they run fast, they move like humans, they sneak through the brush and …

Boston Dynamics, the company that’s singlehandedly trying to hasten the fall of humankind with its incredible robot technology, has just unveiled the WildCat – the next generation of its Cheetah robot. “WildCat is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain. So far WildCat has run at about 16 mph on flat terrain using bounding …

In September of last year, DARPA introduced the world to its cheetah robot. It can run at speeds up to 29 MPH, but it posed no threat to humanity as it was confined to a treadmill and the connecting wires that powered it. Now that very same robot has been set free. DARPA and Boston Dynamics introduced WildCat to the …

Remember Atlas? The robot that can walk like a man and withstand being hit with 20 pound weights is back and better than ever. In fact, Atlas is now hard at work training for the annual DARPA Robotics Challenge. In the latest video, we get to see Atlas’ fulfill its promise of being able to traverse rough terrain. The engineers …

Last week, DARPA introduced the world to ATLAS – a robot that walks like a man, and can regain its balance after being hit by a 20 lb. wrecking ball. The original video may not have instilled enough terror into you, however, so here’s another to make sure you understand the ramifications of DARPA creating a nigh invincible robot. IEEE …

I thought that maybe DARPA would hold off on making killer robots for a while, but the defense contractor is back at it again what it calls “one of the most advanced humanoid robots ever built.” The humanoid robot in question is named ATLAS. It’s 6’2″ and weighs 330 lbs. It can walk up steps, adjust itself after putting one …

You may remember Boston Dynamic’s Petman anthropomorphic robot, with his terrifying human-like movements, testing various types of military protective gear. In order to properly test such gear, the robot needs to act as human as possible in its movements. Petman does just that. He even sweats. Good lord, I’m calling it a “he.” It’s begun. Well, now they’ve put him …

This week four new robots were inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame. The 2012 induction class includes Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO, iRobot’s PackBot, Boston Dynamics’ BigDog, and Pixar’s WALL-E. WALL-E, the industrious robot from the Pixar movie of the same name, beat out the Jetsons’ Rosie and Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movies to win the entertainment category. The …